Systems and methods for causing a user to view secondary content that relates to a media asset from which a user has switched away

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are described herein for a media guidance application to determine that a user has switched away from a source transmitting a media asset with which the user was engaged and detect, while the user is switched away from the source, that secondary content transmitted by the source during a break of playback of the media asset relates to the media asset. In response to detecting that the secondary content relates to the media asset, the media guidance application may access a database to determine whether the secondary content specifically corresponds to the media asset, and, in response to determining that the secondary content specifically corresponds to the media asset, the media guidance application may generate for display the secondary content to the user.

BACKGROUND

Media consumption has been growing at an exponential rate. As themediums through which media is provided expand (e.g., from television,to Internet, and beyond), the entities that transmit primary mediacontent have found an expanding array of ways to monetize the growingmedia consumption (e.g., by broadcasting secondary content during breaksin the primary content).

Consumers of primary content have grown weary of being exposed tosecondary content during breaks in the primary content. Thus, relatedart systems have proliferated that are directed toward navigating a useraway from secondary content and to, e.g., other primary content that theuser may prefer. The related art systems, however, do not consider thepossibility that a user may be caused to miss secondary content that theuser in fact would prefer to be exposed to, and instead will alwaysnavigate the user away from the secondary content.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods are disclosed herein for causing a user to viewsecondary content that relates to a media asset from which a user hasswitched away. For example, if the user is viewing an episode of theprogram series “The Office” over a cable television channel, and thatchannel broadcasts secondary content during a break in the episode thatshows a cliffhanger or other information that relates to that episode orwould further the user's enjoyment of that episode, and if the user hasswitched away from the channel because the break began, the systems andmethods provided herein would switch the user back to the channel. Thus,the systems and methods provided herein ensure that a user is exposed tosecondary content relating to a media asset that the user enjoys even ifthe user had switched away from the primary content intentionally.

To this end, in some aspects of the disclosure, a media guidanceapplication executed by control circuitry (e.g., of a user equipment)may determine that a user is engaged in viewing a media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that userequipment is tuned to a specific channel at a specific time, and maydetermine that the user has been fixated on the display of a media assetgenerated for display by the user equipment for a sufficient amount oftime.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatthe user is engaged in viewing the media asset by monitoring, using abiometric instrument, a level of attention that the user is paying tothe media asset. For example, the media guidance application may use acamera to determine for what percentage of playback of a segment of themedia asset the user's eyes are directed to a display of the mediaasset. The media guidance application may determine that the level ofattention exceeds a threshold (e.g., the eyes were directed to thedisplay for a threshold period of time), in response to determining thatthe level of attention exceeds the threshold, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the user is engaged in viewing the mediaasset.

In some embodiments, in response to determining that the user is engagedin viewing the media asset, the media guidance application monitor,during each break in the media asset, whether the user switches awayfrom a source of the media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine whether, during a break in the media asset inwhich secondary content is generated for display (e.g., a break betweensegments of an episode of “The Office”), the user has tuned to adifferent channel.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine, basedon the monitoring, that the user has switched away from the source ofthe media asset during a break in the media asset. Following from theexample above, the media guidance application may determine that a userhas in fact tuned to a channel different from the channel that isbroadcasting the episode of “The Office” during a break in thatbroadcast.

In some embodiments, in response to determining that the user hasswitched away from the source during the break, the media guidanceapplication may monitor secondary content transmitted by the sourceduring the break for an indication that the secondary content is relatedto the media asset. For example, following from the example above, themedia guidance application may monitor secondary content on the channelthat is broadcasting “The Office” even after the user has tuned awayfrom that channel. When monitoring, the media guidance application mayseek to detect that a character from the episode of “The Office” that isbeing broadcast appears in the secondary content, or may seek to detectany other indication that the secondary content relates to the episodeof “The Office.”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may monitor thesecondary content transmitted by the source during the break for anindication that the secondary content is related to the media asset byidentifying characteristics of the media asset (e.g., actors in a mediaasset, soundtrack of a media asset, audio of a media asset, and thelike). The media guidance application may fingerprint a video frame ofthe secondary content to create a fingerprint, and may comparecharacteristics of the fingerprint to each of the characteristics of themedia asset. For example, fingerprinting the media asset may involvesampling voices, images, characters, and the like of a segment of themedia asset, and these characteristics may be compared tocharacteristics of the media asset. The media guidance application maythen determine whether, based on the comparing, a match exists between acharacteristic of the characteristics of the fingerprint and acharacteristic of the characteristics of the media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine, basedon detecting the indication during the monitoring, that the secondarycontent is related to the media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may affirmatively detect that a character from the episodeof “The Office” is present during the secondary content.

In some embodiments, in response to determining that the secondarycontent is related to the media asset, the media guidance applicationmay determine a unique identifier corresponding to the secondarycontent. For example, the media guidance application may fingerprint thesecondary content and then access an identifier reference datastructure. The media guidance application may then compare uniqueattributes of the secondary content to attributes of entries of asecondary content database in order to determine what the secondarycontent is specifically directed to.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine theunique identifier corresponding to the secondary content by accessingauxiliary information corresponding to the secondary content (e.g.,information in a vertical blanking interval (“VBI”) signal thatindicates what the secondary content relates to). The media guidanceapplication may determining a subject of the secondary content from theauxiliary information (e.g., a title of a media asset that the secondarycontent relates to), and may assign the subject of the secondary contentto be the unique identifier.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine, basedon information of the identifier reference data structure, whether theunique identifier for the secondary content corresponds to an identifierof the media asset. For example, the media guidance application mayperform this determination by comparing the subject to the identifier ofthe media asset, and then determining, based on the comparing of thesubject to the identifier of the media asset, whether the subject of thesecondary content describes the identifier of the media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine whether thesubject of the secondary content happens to be the specific episode of“The Office” that is being broadcast.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determinewhether the subject of the secondary content describes the identifier ofthe media asset by identifying a title of the media asset, and bydetermining whether the subject of the secondary content is the title ofthe media asset. As an example, the media asset may be a singlecomponent of a larger collection of media assets (e.g., a single episodeof “The Office,” which is part of a large collection of episodes of “TheOffice”). Thus, the media guidance application may determine that thesubject of the secondary content is the title of the media asset bydetermining that the subject of the media asset specifically identifiesthe complete title of the media asset, as opposed to a portion of thetitle shared among the larger collection of media assets.

In some embodiments, in response to determining that the uniqueidentifier for the segment of the secondary content corresponds to theidentifier of the media asset, the media guidance application mayautomatically switch back to the source to cause a generation fordisplay of the secondary content to the user. For example, the mediaguidance application may tune back to the channel airing the episode of“The Office” to enable the user to view the secondary content thatrelates to that episode of “The Office.”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application, further in responseto determining that the secondary content is related to the media asset,may buffer the secondary content into a buffer. For example, the mediaguidance application may cause the secondary content to be buffered fromsubstantially its beginning in order to be sure a user will be able toconsume most or all of the secondary content. Thus, when automaticallyswitching back to the source to cause a generation for display of thesecondary content to the user, the media guidance application may switchto a beginning of the buffer (e.g., a time-shifted version of what istransmitted by the source) rather than to a live transmission of thesource.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine,during playback of the secondary content from the buffer, thattransmission of the media asset has resumed from the source. Forexample, halfway through the buffered secondary content, the mediaguidance application may determine that the episode of “The Office” hasresumed. Thus, in response to determining, during playback of thesecondary content from the buffer, that transmission of the media assethas resumed from the source, the media guidance application may bufferthe media asset in the buffer. Upon detecting the conclusion of playbackof the secondary content, the media guidance application may play backthe media asset from the buffer. This will ensure that consumption ofthe secondary content does not cause the user to miss any portion of themedia asset.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may determine that auser has switched away from a source transmitting a media asset withwhich the user was engaged. The media guidance application may detect,while the user is switched away from the source, that secondary contenttransmitted by the source during a break of playback of the media assetrelates to the media asset. In response to detecting that the secondarycontent relates to the media asset, the media guidance application mayaccess a database to determine whether the secondary contentspecifically corresponds to the media asset. In response to determiningthat the secondary content specifically corresponds to the media asset,the media guidance application may generate for display the secondarycontent to the user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for switching backto a recently viewed source of a media asset a user was engaged in whensecondary content is provided during a break in that media asset thatrelates to the media asset, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative embodiment of a display screen that may beused to provide media guidance application listings and other mediaguidance information, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 3 shows another illustrative embodiment of a display screen thatmay be used to provide media guidance application listings, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment (UE) devicein accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for switching backto a source of a media asset a user was engaged in when secondarycontent is provided during a break in that media asset that shares aunique identifier with the media asset, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure; and

FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for determiningwhether secondary content provided during a break in a media assetshares a unique identifier with the media asset, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for switching backto a recently viewed source of a media asset a user was engaged in whensecondary content is provided during a break in that media asset thatrelates to the media asset, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. Process 100 may be executed by a media guidance applicationthat is run by control circuitry. Functionality of the media guidanceapplication, the control circuitry, and the device(s) on which thecontrol circuitry is implemented is discussed below with respect toFIGS. 2-5.

Process 100 begins at 102, where the media guidance application maydetermine that a user has switched away from a source transmitting amedia asset with which the user was engaged. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine that a user has switched away fromthe channel NBC during a break in an episode of the television series“The Office.” Manners in which the media guidance application maydetermine that a user has switched away from a source transmitting amedia asset with which the user was engaged are described in furtherdetail below with respect to FIGS. 6 and 7.

Process 100 continues to 104, where the media guidance application maydetect, while the user is switched away from the source, that secondarycontent transmitted by the source during a break of playback of themedia asset relates to the media asset. For example, while the user hasswitched away from the channel NBC, and is tuned to a different channel(e.g., the FOX channel), the media guidance application may continue tomonitor secondary content transmitted on NBC. During this monitoring,the media guidance application may detect a teaser (e.g., secondarycontent that includes a cliffhanger for the present episode of “TheOffice”) that shows what is going to happen after the break in the mediaasset. Manners in which this detection occurs is described in furtherdetail below with respect to FIGS. 6-7.

Process 100 may continue to 106, where the media guidance application,in response to detecting that the secondary content relates to the mediaasset, may access a database to determine whether the secondary contentspecifically corresponds to the media asset. For example, if thesecondary content includes a video frame including an actor from thetelevision series “The Office,” the media guidance application may thendetermine whether that secondary content is specifically directed to theepisode that is presently airing on the media source that the user tunedaway from (e.g., the NBC channel), as opposed to a different episode, oras apposed to the series “The Office” as a whole. Manners in which thedetermination of whether the secondary content specifically correspondsto the media asset are described in further detail below with respect toFIGS. 6-7.

Process 100 may continue to 108, where the media guidance application,in response to determining that the secondary content specificallycorresponds to the media asset, may generate for display the secondarycontent to the user. For example, following from the “The Office”example above, the media guidance application may switch the channelback to NBC (and away from FOX) to ensure that the user does not missthe teaser pertaining to this specific episode of “The Office.”

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, chat sessions, social media,applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 2-3 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 2-3 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 2-3 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 2 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 200arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 200 may include grid 202 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 204, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 206, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 202 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 208, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 210. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 210 may be provided inprogram information region 212. Region 212 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 202 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 214, recorded content listing 216, andInternet content listing 218. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 200 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings214, 216, and 218 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 202 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 202. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 220. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 220.)

Display 200 may also include video region 222, and options region 226.Video region 222 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 222 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 202. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaguidance application display screens of the embodiments describedherein.

Options region 226 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 226 may be part of display 200 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 226 may concern features related to program listings in grid 202or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 5. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 3. Video mosaic display 300 includes selectable options 302 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 300, television listings option 304 isselected, thus providing listings 306, 308, 310, and 312 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 300 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 308 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 314 and text portion 316.Media portion 314 and/or text portion 316 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 314 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 300 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 306 islarger than listings 308, 310, and 312), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 4 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 400. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 5.User equipment device 400 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 402. I/O path 402 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 404, which includesprocessing circuitry 406 and storage 408. Control circuitry 404 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 402. I/O path 402 may connect control circuitry 404 (andspecifically processing circuitry 406) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 4 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 404 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 406. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 404 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 408). Specifically, control circuitry 404 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 404 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 404 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 404 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 5). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 408 thatis part of control circuitry 404. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 408 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 5, may be used to supplementstorage 408 or instead of storage 408.

Control circuitry 404 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 404 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 400. Circuitry 404 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 408 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 400, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 408.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 404 using user inputinterface 410. User input interface 410 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 412 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 400. For example, display 412 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 410may be integrated with or combined with display 412. Display 412 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 412 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 412 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 412.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry404. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 404.Speakers 414 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 400 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 412 may be played throughspeakers 414. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers414.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 400. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage408), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 404 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 408 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 404 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 410. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 410 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 400 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 400. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 404 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 404) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 400. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 400.Equipment device 400 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 410 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 400 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 410.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 400 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 404). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 404 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 404. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 404. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 400 of FIG. 4 can be implemented in system 500 ofFIG. 5 as user television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504,wireless user communications device 506, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 4 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504, or awireless user communications device 506. For example, user televisionequipment 502 may, like some user computer equipment 504, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 504 may, like some television equipment 502, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 504, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 506.

In system 500, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 5 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 502, user computer equipment 504, wireless user communicationsdevice 506) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 514.Namely, user television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504, andwireless user communications device 506 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 514 via communications paths 508, 510, and 512, respectively.Communications network 514 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 508, 510, and 512 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 512 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 5 it is awireless path and paths 508 and 510 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 508, 510, and 512, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 514.

System 500 includes content source 516 and media guidance data source518 coupled to communications network 514 via communication paths 520and 522, respectively. Paths 520 and 522 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 508, 510,and 512. Communications with the content source 516 and media guidancedata source 518 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 516 and media guidance data source 518, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 516 and media guidance data source 518 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 516 and 518 withuser equipment devices 502, 504, and 506 are shown as throughcommunications network 514, in some embodiments, sources 516 and 518 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 502, 504, and 506 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 508, 510, and 512.

Content source 516 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 516 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 516 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 516 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 518 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 518may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 518 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 518 mayprovide user equipment devices 502, 504, and 506 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions that entice the user tokeep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one towhich the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 408, and executedby control circuitry 404 of a user equipment device 400. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 404 of user equipment device 400and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 518) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 518), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 518 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices502, 504, and 506 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 500 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 5.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 514.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 516 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 502 and user computer equipment 504may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 506 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 514. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 516 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 518. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504, and wirelessuser communications device 506. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 504 or wireless usercommunications device 506 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 504. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 514. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 4.

As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as aresult of. For example, a first action being performed in response to asecond action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for switching backto a source of a media asset a user was engaged in when secondarycontent is provided during a break in that media asset that shares aunique identifier with the media asset, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. The elements of process 600 may each beexecuted based on commands of a media guidance application. Each commandof the media guidance application may cause control circuitry 404 toreactively perform an action, such as a processing or control activityrelating to achieving an element of process 600. Control circuitry 404may be implemented in user equipment (e.g., user television equipment502, user computer equipment 504, and/or wireless user communicationsdevice 506), in a server that is reachable to user equipment by way ofcommunications network 514, or spread across both user equipment and aserver. The source may be media content source 516.

Process 600 begins at 602, where control circuitry 404 may determinethat a user is engaged in viewing a media asset. The user may be viewingthe media asset through any known means, such as broadcast television,on-demand television, playing back a recorded or otherwise stored copyof a media asset (e.g., a downloaded media asset), playing back astreaming version of the media asset (e.g., from a peer-to-peerconnection or from a streaming video service such as Netflix), and thelike.

The media guidance application may determine that the user is engaged inviewing the media asset by determining through any known means that auser has a threshold level of interest in the media asset. For example,a biometric instrument, such as a camera, may monitor a biometricreaction of a user, such as a percentage of time that a user's eyes arefocused on the media asset, as opposed to some other object, todetermine whether the user's eyes were focused on the media asset for ahigh enough percentage of time to form a conclusion that the user is infact interested in the media asset. The threshold level of interest maybe defined by an editor statically (i.e., the threshold level ofinterest applies equally for each person), or dynamically (i.e., as afunction, where variables of the function point to portions of a userprofile, so that the threshold level of interest is custom tailored toeach user). An example of a dynamic threshold level of interest is, if auser's profile reflects that the user often does household chores duringplayback of the media asset and rarely sits down to focus on the mediaasset, a very small amount of time, such as sitting down and focusing onthe media asset for 3 minutes of a 30 minute media asset, may reflectthat the user is highly interested in the media asset. A user who rarelydoes secondary tasks when viewing a media asset and usually focuses for28 minutes of a 30 minute media asset may have a threshold level ofinterest calculated to be at least 29 minutes of a 30 minute mediaasset, as anything lower reflects a lower-than-usual interest. Anyfunction can be used, relying on any information of a user profile, tocause a dynamic assignment of a level of interest. The threshold levelof interest may be stored in media guidance data source 518 and/orstorage 408. Actual calculations of how engaged a user is in a mediaasset are further described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,797, issued Oct. 25,2011, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entirety.

Upon determining that a user is in fact engaged in a media asset,process 600 may continue to 604, where control circuitry 404 may monitorfor a break in the media asset that the user is engaged in. Monitoringfor a break in the media asset may be performed in any manner. Forexample, the media guidance application may detect a change inbrightness or volume that exceeds a predefined amount, where thepredefined amount is stored in media guidance data source 518 or storage408. As another example, the media guidance application may detect aninterval of blackness, where no video frame is present, and maydetermine based on that detection that a transition has occurred betweenthe media asset and a break of the media asset. As another example, themedia guidance application may utilize image recognition technology todetermine that video transmitted by media content source 516 no longerincludes characteristics of the media asset, such as the characters ofthe media asset, and instead includes other, unknown characters. Themedia guidance application may use any other means to monitor for abreak in the media asset. Manners in which a transition to a break in amedia asset may be detected are described in further detail in U.S. Pat.No. 6,792,197, issued Sep. 14, 2004, the contents of which are herebyincorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

Process 600 may continue to 606, where the control circuitry 404 maydetermine (e.g., during the monitoring) whether a break in the mediaasset has been encountered. If no break has been detected, process 600will revert to 604, where control circuitry 404 will continue monitoringfor a break. If a break, however, has been detected, process 600continues to 608, where control circuitry 404 may determine whether theuser switched away from the source of the media asset during the breakin the media asset.

The media guidance application may determine whether the user hasswitched away from the source of the media asset in any manner. Forexample, in the case that the media asset is a broadcast televisionprogram, the media guidance application may determine that the user hasswitched away from the source of the media asset if the media guidanceapplication detects that the user tunes away from the channel on whichthe media asset is being broadcast, and to a different channel on whichthe media asset is not being broadcast. As another example, if the mediaasset is streamed over an OTT application, such as a video streamingprovider like Hulu, the media guidance application may detect that theuser has switched to a different media asset using Hulu.

Alternatively, in some embodiments, the media guidance application maydetect that the user has become disengaged or disinterested in the mediaasset by detecting that the user is using a different device to consumedifferent media. For example, the media guidance application may notdetect that the user has switched away from the source of the mediaasset, but has in fact used a device different from the device on whichthe media asset is generated for display to consume other media. In thiscase, the media guidance application may react in the same manner inwhich the media guidance application reacts when it detects that theuser has switched away from the source of the media asset.

Upon determining that the user did in fact switch away from the sourceof the media asset during the break in the media asset, process 600 maycontinue to 610, where control circuitry 404 may monitor secondarycontent transmitted by the source during the break for an indicationthat the secondary content is related to the media asset. For example,the media guidance application may monitor for an indication thatpromotional content presented during in the break of the media assetactually relates to the media asset itself, as opposed to being apromotion for some other product or service. The media guidanceapplication may monitor for the indication in any portion of thesecondary content, be it video frames, textual information, metadata orother auxiliary information such as information in a VBI signal orinformation transmitted with a stream including the secondary content,or other auxiliary information such as third party information fromthird party data sources such as media guidance data source 518.

In order to monitor for this indication, the media guidance applicationmay compare attributes of the media asset to any possible indication ofrelatedness to the media asset in the secondary content. As an example,if the media asset is an episode of the television series “The Office,”the indication may be textual data within the secondary content thatspells out “The Office,” may be metadata that reflects that the title ofthe secondary content, at least in part, or spells out the text string“The Office.” Similarly, actor information or any other information maybe used to perform comparisons to detect a possible indication ofrelatedness. Other manners in which this detection may occur aredescribed in further detail below with respect to FIG. 7.

At 612, control circuitry 404 determines whether any of the monitoredsecondary content is related to the media asset. If none of themonitored secondary content is related to the media asset, process 600reverts back to 610, where the secondary content is continued to bemonitored. If, however, secondary content is in fact detected that isrelated to the media asset, process 600 continues to 614, where controlcircuitry 404 may determine a unique identifier corresponding to thesecondary content.

As used herein, the term unique identifier corresponding to thesecondary content is used to refer to any identifier of the secondarycontent that can be used to identify the secondary content, or thesubject of the secondary content, unambiguously. For example, if thesecondary content is a teaser for a specific episode of the televisionseries “The Office,” a unique identifier is an identifier that indicatesthat the teaser relates to the specific episode, as opposed to anidentifier that generically relates to the series or title “The Office,”which would not specifically, and unambiguously, identify the episode.

The media guidance application may determine the unique identifier bycomparing any detected identifier of the secondary content, orcharacteristics of a fingerprint of the secondary content, to data ofentries of a database (e.g., media guidance data source 518). The mediaguidance application may determine how many entries have data thatmatches the detected identifier. If there is a single match, then themedia guidance application may determine that the identifier is a uniqueidentifier. If there is more than a single match, then the mediaguidance application may determine that the identifier is not a uniqueidentifier, as the identifier instead likely broadly describes multiplesecondary content.

Process 600 may continue to 616, where control circuitry 404 may accessan identifier reference data structure. For example, the identifierreference data structure may include information that uniquely relatesto the media asset itself (e.g., information that uniquely identifiesthe specific episode of “The Office”).

Process 600 may continue to 618, where the control circuitry 404 maydetermine, based on information of the identifier reference datastructure, whether the unique identifier for the secondary contentcorresponds to an identifier of the media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may perform this determination by comparing thesubject of the secondary content to the identifier of the media asset.As used herein, the term “subject,” as used in relation to the term“secondary content,” describes a topic to which the secondary topic isdirected. For example, if the secondary content is designed to promote aproduct or service, that product or service is the “subject” of thesecondary content. As another example, if the secondary content isdesigned to create suspense for a to-be-transmitted portion of a mediaasset, such as a segment of the media asset that is to resume after abreak from the media asset, then the subject may be the media assetitself, or that segment of the media asset. The media guidanceapplication may thus determine the unique identifier described above tobe a subject of the media asset. Thus, the media guidance applicationmay determine, based on the comparing of the subject to the identifierof the media asset, whether the subject of the secondary contentdescribes the identifier of the media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine whether the subject of the secondarycontent (which may be, e.g., a teaser for a specific episode of “TheOffice”) happens to be the specific episode of “The Office” that isbeing broadcast.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determinewhether the subject of the secondary content describes the identifier ofthe media asset by identifying a title of the media asset, and bydetermining whether the subject of the secondary content is the title ofthe media asset. As an example, the media asset may be a singlecomponent of a larger collection of media assets (e.g., a single episodeof “The Office,” which is part of a large collection of episodes of “TheOffice.” Thus, the media guidance application may determine that thesubject of the secondary content is the title of the media asset bydetermining that the subject of the media asset specifically identifiesthe complete title of the media asset, as opposed to a portion of thetitle shared among the larger collection of media assets.

Process 600 may, in response to determining that the unique identifierfor the segment of the secondary content corresponds to the identifierof the media asset, proceed to 620, where control circuitry 404 mayautomatically switch back to the source to cause a generation fordisplay of the secondary content to the user. For example, the mediaguidance application may tune back to the channel airing the episode of“The Office” to enable the user to view the secondary content thatrelates to that episode of “The Office.” If the user is distracted usinga different application or a different device, the media guidanceapplication may alert the user, rather than automatically tuning theuser back, to the fact that the secondary content is being transmittedby the source.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application, further in responseto determining that the secondary content is related to the media asset,may buffer the secondary content into a buffer. For example, the mediaguidance application may cause the secondary content to be buffered fromsubstantially its beginning in order to be sure a user will be able toconsume most or all of the secondary content by using the bufferedversion of the secondary content. Thus, when automatically switchingback to the source to cause a generation for display of the secondarycontent to the user, the media guidance application may switch to abeginning of the buffer (e.g., a time-shifted version of what istransmitted by the source) rather than to a live transmission of thesource.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine,during playback of the secondary content from the buffer, thattransmission of the media asset has resumed from the source. Forexample, halfway through the buffered secondary content, the mediaguidance application may determine that the episode of “The Office” hasresumed. Thus, in response to determining, during playback of thesecondary content from the buffer, that transmission of the media assethas resumed from the source, the media guidance application may bufferthe media asset in the buffer. Upon detecting the conclusion of playbackof the secondary content, the media guidance application may play backthe media asset from the buffer. This will ensure that consumption ofthe secondary content does not cause the user to miss any portion of themedia asset. Manners in which a media asset may be buffered based ondetection of secondary content is described in further detail in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 15/197,348, filed Jun. 29, 2016, currentlypending, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by referenceherein in their entirety.

FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for determiningwhether secondary content provided during a break in a media assetshares a unique identifier with the media asset, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. The elements of process 700 may each beexecuted based on commands of a media guidance application. Each commandof the media guidance application may cause control circuitry 404 toreactively perform an action, such as a processing or control activityrelating to achieving an element of process 700. Control circuitry 404may be implemented in user equipment (e.g., user television equipment502, user computer equipment 504, and/or wireless user communicationsdevice 506), in a server that is reachable to user equipment by way ofcommunications network 514, or spread across both user equipment and aserver. Process 700 is an exemplary process for how 612 or 618 ofprocess 600 may be implemented.

Process 700 begins at 702, where control circuitry 404 may identifycharacteristics of the media asset. Characteristics of the media assetmay be identified in any manner. For example, control circuitry 404 mayquery a database such as media guidance data source 518 to learn variouscharacteristics of the media asset (e.g., title, actor, director, yearof release, and any other characteristic of the media asset). As anotherexample, control circuitry 404 may identify characteristics of the mediaasset by identifying visual or audio characteristics of entities withinthe media asset, such as facial characteristics of an actor,characteristics of a setting in which a scene takes place,characteristics of a speaker's voice, and the like.

Process 700 continues to 704, where control circuitry 404 mayfingerprint a video frame of the secondary content to create afingerprint. Fingerprinting may involve any manner of reducing a mediaasset to a set of representative characteristics. As an example, controlcircuitry 404 may fingerprint the video frame by sampling video and/oraudio characteristics of the video frame. As another example, controlcircuitry 404 may fingerprint the video frame by identifying a watermarkwithin the video frame and storing it as a fingerprint. As anotherexample, control circuitry 404 may fingerprint the video frame byidentifying descriptive metadata or auxiliary data relating to the videoframe.

Process 700 continues to 706, where control circuitry 404 may comparecharacteristics of the fingerprint to each of the characteristics of themedia asset. For example, the representative characteristics of themedia asset, such as an actor's facial characteristics, may be comparedto characteristics of the fingerprint to determine whether those facialcharacteristics form a part of the fingerprint. Process 700 concludes at708, where control circuitry 404 may determine whether, based on thecomparing, a match exists between a characteristic of thecharacteristics of the fingerprint and a characteristic of thecharacteristics of the media asset.

Process 700 may apply to 618 by limiting the comparison of 706 tocharacteristics that uniquely identify the media asset (e.g., a set ofunique identifiers of the media asset) against the fingerprint. Thus, acomparison of those characteristics that uniquely identify the mediaasset would only yield a match if the fingerprint reflects a uniquecharacteristic.

It should be noted that processes 100 and 600-700 or any step thereofcould be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS.4-5. For example, any of processes 100 and 600-700 may be executed bycontrol circuitry 404 (FIG. 4) as instructed by control circuitryimplemented on user equipment 502, 504, and/or 506 (FIG. 5) in order toswitch between media sources. In addition, one or more steps ofprocesses 100 and 600-700 may be incorporated into or combined with oneor more steps of any other process or embodiment.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of each of FIGS. 1 and6-7 may be used with any other embodiment of this disclosure. Inaddition, the steps and descriptions described in relation to FIGS. 1and 6-7 may be done in alternative orders or in parallel to further thepurposes of this disclosure. For example, each of these steps may beperformed in any order or in parallel or substantially simultaneously toreduce lag or increase the speed of the system or method. Furthermore,it should be noted that any of the devices or equipment discussed inrelation to FIGS. 4-5 could be used to perform one or more of the stepsin FIGS. 1 and 6-7.

It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that methodsinvolved in the present invention may be embodied in a computer programproduct that includes a computer-usable and/or readable medium. Forexample, such a computer-usable medium may consist of a read-only memorydevice, such as a CD-ROM disk or conventional ROM device, or a randomaccess memory, such as a hard drive device or a computer diskette,having a computer-readable program code stored thereon. It should alsobe understood that methods, techniques, and processes involved in thepresent invention may be executed using processing circuitry. Forinstance, switching between different media sources may be performed,e.g., by processing circuitry 406 of FIG. 4. The processing circuitry,for instance, may be a general purpose processor, a customizedintegrated circuit (e.g., an ASIC), or a field-programmable gate array(FPGA) within user equipment 400, media content source 516, or mediaguidance data source 518. For example, a profile, as described herein,may be stored in, and retrieved from, storage 408 of FIG. 4, or mediaguidance data source 518 of FIG. 5. Furthermore, processing circuitry,or a computer program, may update settings associated with a user, suchas a user's propensity to be engaged in a given media asset, storedwithin storage 408 of FIG. 4 or media guidance data source 518 of FIG.5.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may becombined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done indifferent orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems andmethods described herein may be performed in real time. It should alsobe noted, the systems and/or methods described above may be applied to,or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

1-51. (canceled)
 52. A method for displaying secondary content thatrelates to a media asset, the method comprising: receiving a media assetfrom a media source; generating for display the received media asset;monitoring an engagement of a user with the media asset prior to a breakin the media asset; identifying the break in the media asset; inresponse to the monitoring indicating that the user is engaged with themedia asset, identifying secondary content that is related to the mediaasset; and in response to identifying the secondary content that isrelated to the media asset, automatically causing the secondary contentto be displayed during the break.
 53. The method of claim 52, whereinthe media asset is a linear media asset and the media source is a linearmedia source.
 54. The method of claim 53, wherein the secondary contentcomprises a linear secondary content, further comprising: further inresponse to identifying the linear secondary content that is related tothe linear media asset, buffering the linear secondary content into abuffer and switching to a beginning of the buffer.
 55. The method ofclaim 54, further comprising: determining, during playback of the linearsecondary content from the buffer, that transmission of the linear mediaasset has resumed from the linear media source; in response todetermining, during playback of the linear secondary content from thebuffer, that transmission of the linear media asset has resumed from thelinear media source, buffering the linear media asset in the buffer;detecting a conclusion of playback of the linear secondary content; andin response to detecting the conclusion of playback of the linearsecondary content, playing back the linear media asset from the buffer.56. The method of claim 52, wherein identifying the secondary contentthat is related to the media asset comprises: determining a uniqueidentifier corresponding to the secondary content; accessing, frommetadata corresponding to the media asset, an identifier reference datastructure; and determining, based on information of the identifierreference data structure, that the unique identifier for the secondarycontent corresponds to an identifier of the media asset.
 57. The methodof claim 56, wherein determining the unique identifier corresponding tothe secondary content comprises: accessing auxiliary informationcorresponding to the secondary content; determining a subject of thesecondary content from the auxiliary information; and assigning thesubject of the secondary content to be the unique identifier.
 58. Themethod of claim 56, wherein determining, based on information of theidentifier reference data structure, that the unique identifier for thesecondary content corresponds to the identifier of the media assetcomprises: comparing a subject of the secondary content to theidentifier of the media asset; and determining, based on the comparingof the subject of the secondary content to the identifier of the mediaasset, that the subject of the secondary content describes theidentifier of the media asset.
 59. The method of claim 58, whereindetermining that the subject of the secondary content describes theidentifier of the media asset comprises: identifying a title of themedia asset; and determining that the subject of the secondary contentis the title of the media asset.
 60. The method of claim 52, whereinidentifying the secondary content that is related to the media assetcomprises: identifying characteristics of the media asset;fingerprinting a video frame of the secondary content to create afingerprint; comparing characteristics of the fingerprint to thecharacteristics of the media asset; and determining, based on thecomparing, that a match exists between a characteristic of thecharacteristics of the fingerprint and a characteristic of thecharacteristics of the media asset.
 61. The method of claim 52, whereinmonitoring the engagement of the user with the media asset prior to thebreak in the media asset comprises: monitoring, using a biometricdevice, a level of attention that the user is paying to the media asset;determining that the level of attention exceeds a threshold; and inresponse to determining that the level of attention exceeds thethreshold, determining that the user is engaged in viewing the mediaasset.
 62. A system for displaying secondary content that relates to amedia asset, the system comprising: control circuitry configured to:receive a media asset from a media source; generate for display thereceived media asset; monitor an engagement of a user with the mediaasset prior to a break in the media asset; identify the break in themedia asset; in response to the monitoring indicating that the user isengaged with the media asset, identify secondary content that is relatedto the media asset; and in response to the identification of thesecondary content that is related to the media asset, automaticallycause the secondary content to be displayed during the break.
 63. Thesystem of claim 62, wherein the media asset is a linear media asset andthe media source is a linear media source.
 64. The system of claim 63,wherein the secondary content is a linear secondary content, wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured to: further in response to theidentification of the linear secondary content that is related to thelinear media asset, buffer the linear secondary content into a bufferand switch to a beginning of the buffer.
 65. The system of claim 64,wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: determine,during playback of the linear secondary content from the buffer, thattransmission of the linear media asset has resumed from the linear mediasource; in response to the determination, during playback of the linearsecondary content from the buffer, that transmission of the linear mediaasset has resumed from the linear media source, buffer the linear mediaasset in the buffer; detect a conclusion of playback of the linearsecondary content; and in response to the detection of the conclusion ofplayback of the linear secondary content, play back the linear mediaasset from the buffer.
 66. The system of claim 62, wherein, to identifythe secondary content that is related to the media asset, the controlcircuitry is further configured to: determine a unique identifiercorresponding to the secondary content; access, from metadatacorresponding to the media asset, an identifier reference datastructure; and determine, based on information of the identifierreference data structure, that the unique identifier for the secondarycontent corresponds to an identifier of the media asset.
 67. The systemof claim 66, wherein, to determine the unique identifier correspondingto the secondary content, the control circuitry is further configuredto: access auxiliary information corresponding to the secondary content;determine a subject of the secondary content from the auxiliaryinformation; and assign the subject of the secondary content to be theunique identifier.
 68. The system of claim 66, wherein, to determine,based on information of the identifier reference data structure, thatthe unique identifier for the secondary content corresponds to theidentifier of the media asset, the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to: compare a subject of the secondary content to theidentifier of the media asset; and determine, based on the comparison ofthe subject of the secondary content to the identifier of the mediaasset, that the subject of the secondary content describes theidentifier of the media asset.
 69. The system of claim 68, wherein, todetermine that the subject of the secondary content describes theidentifier of the media asset, the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to: identify a title of the media asset; and determine thatthe subject of the secondary content is the title of the media asset.70. The system of claim 62, wherein, to identify the secondary contentthat is related to the media asset, the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to: identify characteristics of the media asset; fingerprinta video frame of the secondary content to create a fingerprint; comparecharacteristics of the fingerprint to the characteristics of the mediaasset; and determine, based on the comparison, that a match existsbetween a characteristic of the characteristics of the fingerprint and acharacteristic of the characteristics of the media asset.
 71. The systemof claim 62, wherein, to monitor the engagement of the user with themedia asset prior to the break in the media asset, the control circuitryis further configured to: monitor, using a biometric device, a level ofattention that the user is paying to the media asset; determine that thelevel of attention exceeds a threshold; and in response to thedetermination that the level of attention exceeds the threshold,determine that the user is engaged in viewing the media asset.